Nothing's A Mistake
by SunnyInOregon
Summary: The choices you make can lead to surprising results. My response to the country song Pick a Pair Challenge. My song was This by Darius Rucker and I chose Dave and Penelope. Other pairing of Aaron and Emily.


Nothing's a Mistake

My response to the country song Pick a Pair Challenge. Author's were assigned a song and allowed to choose their own pairings. My song was This by Darius Rucker and I chose Dave and Penelope.

Pairing: Dave/Penelope, Aaron/Emily

Summary: The choices you make can lead to surprising results.

_Thank God for all I missed_

_Cause it led me here to this_

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

_Sometime in the near future_

David leaned against the railing and stared through the sliding glass doors at the newly married couple on the dance floor. Aaron Hotchner was his best friend a deeply caring and devoted man who deserved the very best. Unlike Dave, Aaron had married his high school sweetheart while Dave had let his slip away. And though Aaron's first wife was gone he now had someone new to love. Dave reached deep into his pocket and pulled out the round well-worn locket that he kept there; a reminder of things he had lost.

Her picture was still in there slightly faded a round cut out of her heart shaped face. He opened the locket and smiled at the image. He should have married her, he thought not for the first time. Should have married her and built a life, a family with her. But he had dreams. Dreams that took him far away from Commack, New York. Far away from her. He sighed, closed the locket and shoved it back into his pocket. He turned away from the glass door and leaned his elbows on the railing as he stared at the water in front of him.

That part of his life was over and he really needed to let it go. There was no getting it back and even if he could, did he really want to? His life had moved to a very different place and he wouldn't change it now. He reached into his pocket again pulling out the locket he turned it over in his hand several times. She was dead. It was time to let her go. He raised the locket to his lips and pressed a kiss as he said a silent goodbye then tossed it into the water. She had moved on and now so had he.

He turned back to the party and smiled as Jennifer Jareau flashed across his line of sight. She had been a breath of fresh air when he had returned to the BAU. They had spent several nights keeping each other company until she had decided to keep the company of Will LaMontagne. Dave's reputation as a ladies man had preceded him on his journey out of retirement and though it had gotten him into trouble before he now knew how to keep his liaisons to himself. Yeah he was still a lady killer he just didn't tell the rest of the world about it anymore.

He crossed the deck and slid open the glass door allowing the music to wash over him as he entered the room. Aaron and his bride, the lovely Emily Prentiss were still on the dance floor locked closely together and forgetting that their friends were watching. Dave smiled as he watched them. He had been tempted to go after the alluring Ms. Prentiss himself but quickly realized she was interested in someone else; even before Aaron had been available. Dave could have had her, really he could have but he saw the way Aaron watched her as well and decided to stay out of the way.

Letting his eyes wander around the room he admired all the beautiful women there. He could pick and choose the best of the best if he wanted to. He spotted Derek Morgan sitting at a table a bevy of beautiful women surrounding his and it made Dave shake his head. Didn't the man know? In order to be truly successful in the art of love you must focus on one at a time. You must make them feel special. He took a deep breath and let it out again. At another table sat Spencer Reid and a female companion. Reid was talking at his usual mile a minute and the woman looked totally fascinated with everything he was saying. Maybe she was drunk. Whatever she was; it looked like Dr. Reid wouldn't be going home alone tonight.

Across the room his eyes landed on a vision from his dreams. Her smile, her curves took his breath away. All the women he had and lost or never had at all had led him here to her. This is the one, he thought, the one woman he would spend the rest of his life with. He determinedly crossed the room to her. Reaching he took her hand in his and pulled her to the dance floor. She settled wordlessly in his arms as they swayed to the music.

"Feeling nostalgic?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Grateful."

She raised an eyebrow in question.

"I realized that if it wasn't for all the mistakes I've made I never would have found you," he told her. "I never would have gotten all of this."

He pulled her closer pressing against her swollen belly. She smiled and locked her hands around his neck.

"Why David Rossi I think marriage and impending fatherhood has made you soft," she teased.

He grinned back at her. "Only for you, Kitten. Only for you."

He kissed her softly as they moved around the room shutting out everything except each other.

'Yeah,' he thought. 'This time he made the right choice.'


End file.
